Profession: artist

From age nine, Koch had worked as assistant to the cartographer-farmer Hueber. Carstens was both his great friend and ally in the expatriate artist circle in Rome, and an important influence on his work. He shared a Rome apartment and studio with the sculptor Thorvaldsen, and developed a heroic style of landscape painting with his friend Reinhart. He also knew Schinkel in Rome, and was visited by Mendelssohn (who was scornful of the minor German painters there) in his studio. Horny and Richter were his students. The Olivier brothers met him in Vienna and were much influenced by him.

Marin was introduced by Steichen to Stieglitz in Paris, a pivotal moment in his life. Following Stieglitz’s invitation, Marin exhibited in his New York gallery, and began a lifelong association in which the man who became a close friend also took care of all his business affairs. Strand was a neighbour in Maine and New Mexico, though they seem to have been united by their differences. O’Keeffe, married to Stieglitz, became in her own right a fond friend. Miller, having met them on his return to America, wrote about Marin and Stieglitz in ‘An Air-Conditioned Nightmare.’

Beckford had a collection of paintings that Constable, as a student, went to study. Fuseli taught him at the Royal Academy, and applauded his fresh approach to landscape. Although Turner, one year older, was a fellow-student and academician, they never became friends. West offered advice about his career (Constable’s response is unknown). Constable’s and Coleridge’s shared vision has been widely noted; he met Coleridge several times, was acquainted with Wordsworth, and wrote about both in his letters (commenting on Wordsworth’s inflated self-regard). Faraday was a correspondent. Blake, met in Hampstead, said a study of his was not drawing, but inspiration.

Miró met Picabia before leaving for Paris, visiting Picasso (to become a great friend) on arrival, and using Gargallo’s studio. Masson, a neighbour, introduced him to Leiris and others in the surrealist set; Breton declared him “the most surrealist of us all”, though he never officially joined the group. Hugnet, Prévert, Leiris, Breton, Tzara, Char, Crevel and Desnos were among poets he knew whose work he illustrated. He met Hemingway at a gym where both boxed, and sold him a painting. Arp and Ernst became neighbours when he moved again. Sert, a friend and fellow-Catalan, designed a studio and a gallery for him.

He met Spoerri in 1949 and Klein and Saint Phalle (who later became his second wife and great collaborator) in the 1950’s. Christo, Klein, Arman and Saint Phalle were fellow-members of the Paris-based Nouveaux Réalistes. Breer and he planned an exhibition of motion in art while sitting on a rooftop in the night-time rain, he collaborated with Spoerri, Kienholz and Rauschenberg, and attached motors to Klein’s paintings in a joint show. Duchamp and he were mutual admirers, while Rauschenberg, Chamberlain and Klüver met and helped him when he stayed with Huelsenbeck in New York.